Fear is a snare
“So let the peace that comes from Christ control your thoughts. And be grateful.”
Scripture tells us to let God’s peace guide you; the practical meaning of this is that when the Holy Spirit gives you peace about something then it is telling you to make that choice. On the other hand when you get an uneasy gut feeling that is the Holy Spirit telling you not to do something. (Note: this advice is for Christians only the Holy Spirit is not given to unbelievers)
This sounds like simple enough wisdom but Satan likes to imitate and exploit the things God does and the way God works and often times in our lives he does things to simulate, block, mute, and override what God is doing so that we can’t perceive what God is telling us to do and end up making the wrong move.
In Cybersecurity there is something called a denial of service attack, in everyday life it’s akin to what most would know as “breaking the internet”. A denial of service attack is when a website, web application, server is trying to be accessed by someone or something in such a way that it gets overwhelmed with all the traffic and has no more capacity to accept anymore connections so anyone else trying to access it cannot— they get denied (blocked). When someone does something to “break the internet”, let’s say a big celebrity post some risqué pictures, and everyone tries to go look at them at the same time it will cause the site where the pictures are to crash and then no one is able to see them until things are fixed and the site comes back up. Breaking the internet and denial of service attacks both do the same thing ( overwhelm a server with too many requests which causes it to become unavailable to those wishing to use it) but the motivation behind them are different- one is done on purpose for malicious reasons and the other is an accidental consequence of too much interest in something all at once.
Satan utilizes denial of service attacks quite often….he overwhelms the mind with Either too many thoughts or particular thoughts that constantly replays over and over again (rumination) so that your mind becomes too full and too busy and the things God wants to say to you can then no longer get through or fit in your mind and so they get blocked out (denied entry).
This denial of service example is a way Satan tries to block you from God and block God from you. Another strategy he uses however to get between you and God is overriding what God is trying to tell you much like denial of service attacks this strategy is all about overwhelming you in some way so that what God is trying to do won’t get through to you. When God via the Holy Spirit gives us peace about something (the go ahead) the devil can use the very loud emotion of fear to overtalk and hence override the peace that God provided and so we are not able to “hear” (perceive) God’s peace (that he speaks to us with his still small voice) because all we can “hear” is fear and so we miss God’s signal to us to move, to act, to execute and end up disobeying him and reaping the consequences that result from that disobedience. When we take the bait ( the fear trap sent to us by Satan) we get caught in (stuck in) negative consequences sent to us by God.
It may not seem fair that God’s wrath and consequences come to you when you are actively being attacked and fooled —- it’s not like you are intentionally trying to do wrong and after all God knows what Satan is doing to you. But think about what God has shown you through Eve. Even when you are tricked you are qualified to be cursed simply because you were disobedient…you see there are two issues at hand (even though they are wrapped up so tightly together that they seem like one) the first issue is being disobedient and the second is falling for the trick. If we avoided issue one then issue two would have never had an opportunity to take place. So God’s consequences are not coming unfairly because you were tricked they are rightfully coming to the you because you were disobedient.
Like in a magic show Satan’s plans are like a slight of hand…he preoccupies you with one thing while the real thing is taking place somewhere else. You are focused on the distraction, the attack, the temptation, and the unfairness of being punished for issue number two and missing God’s word for you, his warning to you, and the existence of issue number one.
Like all of the things Satan does, fear is a snare (trap) and God’s consequences await all those who get trapped. So watch out!
How to avoid Satan’s snares:
What to do -> Proverbs 4:20-24 CEV says:
“My child, listen carefully to everything I say. Don't forget a single word, but think about it all. Knowing these teachings will mean true life and good health for you. Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.”
Translation: Read the Bible and remember what it says; doing so protects your mind and hence you because people do what they think ( logical snare: you may not do everything you think which would make you say “that is not true there is a lot of things I think that I don’t do” and that sentiment is true for everyone but understand that everything that you do end up doing you thought about it first)
How and why to do it -> Romans 12:2 CEV says:
“Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him.”
Translation: pray and read scripture so that God can give you instructions, warnings, and intel about how the devil will try to trick you (so that you won’t get trapped in consequences)…if you don’t do these things (pray and read scripture) you will be vulnerable and defenseless like non believers who don’t have access to the information God has — living a cursed life and damned thereafter.
